Hazebloom Investigation: Totally Not Distracted

Well, this sure was annoying.

Damian already wasn’t all that big on gardening, but he did it. He powered through it all. Sure he was a bit of a menace at times and just straight up slacked off at other times, but he did the work, demon-dammit. He wanted these damned hazeblooms to, well, bloom and enjoy whatever he could of them.

Can’t really enjoy something that’s been completely, absolutely destroyed beyond repair, though. How infuriating. Who, or what, had so much of a stick up their ass that they had to destroy other buns’ fun?

Thankfully hazeblooms seemed to grow pretty fast, but that meant a whole lot of extra work re-planting, re-watering and generally re-caring for these flowers until they blossomed again. Work he would put in, after all he did practically promise Hops that he’d help her out, but bun…

What if it happened again?

That’s why, when he wasn’t helping Hops in the Wonderland Casino gardens with the new batch of hazeblooms, he figured he’d do a bit of digging around himself. Not an entirely original idea since Hops did suggest and say she was gonna go out and do some questioning herself. Whenever she had time for it.

Who did he ask first, though? He could stop by the church and question either Oleander or Mercy, but… Did he really want to gamble on whether or not he’d get distracted by either of them? Mostly the former? Hmm… Maybe later.

Angora? No. Terrible idea. If she didn’t already know, she must never know.

Dan and Shibani? Damian hadn’t even voiced this thought, but for some reason, it was as if Bat, his chirop, knew. And Bat loved Dan’s dangos. Usually he wouldn’t mind spoiling the little chirop, but right now he was trying to stay focussed.

“Later, buddy, okay?” He promised the chirop, who seemed a little disappointed, but cheered up fast enough at the idea of ‘later’. Good. Looks like his training with Hutch really did pay off.

…hmm, actually, why not question Hutch?

Again, while Damian hadn’t voiced anything, the moment the idea crossed his mind Bat gave him such a judging look.

“I’m not gonna fool around or get distracted, I swear! Besides, what if it’s an imp that destroyed the hazeblooms? They’re, like, the best bun to ask imp-related stuff and you know that just as well as I do.”

…why was he arguing with his imp?

Bat’s expression changed to one that read something like ‘yeah…sure…I believe you’ and, at that moment, he was pretty glad imps couldn’t talk. The judgemental stares didn’t help much and he could only imagine just how bad it would be if there were words attached to said stares.

Anyway, judgemental stares aside he’d already made up his mind. He was gonna pay a certain someone at the Imporium a little visit~

The moment Damian set foot in the Imporium Bat darted in the direction of the imp Hutch, who surprisingly actually seemed to be at the front of his shop this time, seemed to be messing around with. The sight of a chirop so suddenly coming up to them did startle both Hutch and the imp they were busy with, but when they noticed Damian they quickly calmed down.

“Oh, hey there! Looking for another imp to adopt? Supplies?”

…huh, actually, now that Hutch asked–

No no, focus, Damian.

“Sorry, but not this time. I actually came here to ask you a couple of questions.” A beat. “Sorta imp related, sorta not.”

Hutch rightfully seemed a little confused at the way Damian chose to phrase, but it wasn’t anything they’d let deter them. “Erm, okay…?”

Whatever confusion or hesitation Hutch might have been feeling just up and vanished when Damian started questioning them about their most favourite subject; imps. It was so fucking endearing each and every time, but Damian managed to stay focussed and stick to just asking questions.

Questions like, what did imps usually eat, if they ate flowers of any kind, explaining why he was asking the questions he was. That being his wondering if maybe an imp was behind the destruction of the hazeblooms. Much to Damian’s surprise hazeblooms weren’t the only things getting ransacked, which was…kind of worrying, not gonna lie. But also…

He was starting to share a little bit in Hutch’s excitement about some new, unknown antlered imp that no one had even seen before. Maybe it was some super cool imp he could raise as his own alongside Bat? An exciting thought for sure.

“Um, I could show you theories I’ve sketched up, if you’d like…?”

Surprising absolutely no one, especially not Bat the chirop, Damian found himself hopelessly distracted by the passionate imp expert. In his defense though, how could he have said no? Not only was he kind of excited to see what it was Hutch thought this imp might look like, but Hutch was going to show him something they had made! They had never done that before, at least not that Damian was aware of, and that made him feel a little honoured, for some reason. Sure, Hutch was usually kind of awkward around others, but bun did they come to life when the topic was about imps.

So yeah, once Hutch busted out their sketches the original reason for Damian visiting was all but forgotten by the both of them.

Bat was right in giving his owner all of those judging stares before.